Tim Goodale's Frontier Contributions to Idaho Were Quite Significant Editor

I-OCTA Members have Membership in National OCTA. All Dues Paid OCTA, Box 1019, Independence, MO 64051-0519 XX Issue 1 January 2008 James McGill, Editor [email protected] 208 467 4853/ Cell 250 6045 _________________________________ Tim Goodale’s Frontier Contributions to Idaho were Quite Significant Editor The many contributions that Timothy Goodale made to growth in the West, and to the early supports for human livelihood and provisions were important then and now. When he led his wagon train from an area near Boulder, Colorado, and across Wyoming, Idaho and Eastern Oregon, his main intent was just to get certain emigrants to the destinations they had chosen. Published reports of this accomplishment have indicated that he led the train beginning from the area of Fort Hall on the Snake River in Idaho, but that has now been proven as a short- changing of the final big project in his life. He had started with only a few miners’ wagons, increased to a very large train as others joined him, and decreased by half when many chose to go northerly to Montana. Then 14 miles west of Arco, Idaho, before beginning to follow the treacherous volcanic fields along the southern end of the Pioneer Mountains, grew again to the largest train ever to cross Idaho. In the Boise Valley the train then again divided back down to the component trains that had joined him about 200 miles earlier. He finished into Oregon with about 70 wagons. Another development greatly aided his trail contributions. GOODALES CUTOFF THROUGH ROCKS NEAR MIDVALE HILL, A ROUGH PART THAT WAS LITTLE USED AFTER 1862 The opening of many mining fields in Idaho in late They had traveled southerly down the Boise River 1862 and into 1863, just in time to supplement his from the Boise Basin where they had found gold. The related intentions for the Colorado miners, introduced Idaho miners went with Goodale’s wagons on through one of the factors that promoted his importance. At the to Oregon, and then to Walla Walla, WA, for supplies. Boise River his train had coincidently met the Grimes mining party--minus the recently killed Grimes--who As well as the traditional emigrants who followed Tim were by then getting destitute for food and supplies. over the various portions of both the Jeffrey-Goodale Cutoff and Goodale’s Cutoff, many miners in large Warren P. Callahan's discovery of a galena lode which trains found his routes very suitable in getting to their he noticed right along Goodale’s Cutoff [Jeffrey- destinations. Travel over most of his original routes Goodale Cutoff] south of later Bellevue, when he was began to occur in both directions, especially as miners passing through the valley on his way to Montana. moved from field to field throughout the Northwest, and even some to and from California. Part of his “Prospectors set out for Wood River from Rocky Bar cutoff through the Boise Valley, to the Payette River again in 1865: most finished their search entirely and down to follow and cross the Snake River on the disappointed, but some of them found some claims 1863 Olds Ferry, became a heavily used substitute for worth locating near the divide between Camas Creek the Boise River route of the old Oregon Trail route. and Wood River in a district later known as the Hailey Gold Belt. Indian opposition helped to hold back any Many other forms of transportation also found his new- development there for fourteen years. Eventually two opened routes very satisfactory, and that began the use of the original discoverers returned during the Wood of his cutoff route sections for nearly four decades. River rush and saw their mines flourish. Meanwhile, Only the part where he had led his wagons over the Warren P. Callahan came back to examine his galena terrible Midvale Hill route was little used, substituted lode near Goodale’s Cutoff . He and his brother located with the 1863 variant north of Emmett, Idaho. His a claim there September 3, 1873, and followed up with influence also opened the early, little-used John Jeffrey another in 1874.” route across south-central Idaho, now designated as the Jeffrey-Goodale Cutoff, to high volume traffic for emigrants and soon to many uses by others. By 1903, when there were only 150 miles of roads in the nation that had been paved, the Jeffrey-Goodale was improved in places but still quite primitive. When Horatio Nelson Jackson determined to drive the first automobile across the entire U.S., a 1903 Winton (Horatio’s Drive , Ken Burns’ book/video), he took the J-G across Idaho. Tim would surely have been interes- ted if not proud! By then Tim was dead for 34 years. Mining was one of the big beneficiaries of the Goodale reopened and newly opened routes, but Tim had little interest in mining. (He worked temporarily assisting miners in Colorado, but soon abandoned that venture JEFFREY-GOODALE, BRADLY PASS DOWN TO WOOD RIVER for his wagon train.) Of interest from the up-coming Other areas of influence that Tim left with Idahoans, book on the Goodales is this info tidbit, which might and with others in many western states, are detailed in be ironic in relation to his lack of interest. the summer 2008, Rediscovered Frontiersman, Sometime in late 1866, it seems that Tim had visited in Timothy Goodale: An Emigrant Trail Authority , Jim Idaho City, in the rich mining Boise Basin, and was McGill , a new book-- Susan Badger Doyle, Editor . ____________________________________________________________ questioned about his interest in mining. An Idaho City paper described Tim as a man who had covered every MARKING DELAYED BY SNOW trail in “Boise, Alturas, and Owyhee counties,” but that So, one might ask, what do you expect for January? On he had never found gold . Tim’s stated reason was that day 7 of the first month of 2008, it was hoped that the the existing trails that he had always followed “did not weather would cooperate and the permission to mark happen to pass through rich mining areas .” Goodale’s Cutoff trail remnants across the historic Van Dussen Ranch could be fulfilled. A few miles north of However, a 1981 Wood River area mining report, Emmett, ID, the ranch in the valley where an extensive offering some facts almost 120 years after Goodale section of the trail still remains now has only cow trails passed through, included this historic information: following the wide swales of the 1863 Variant. “A premature stampede to Wood River [Blaine This was where one 40 wagon train passed through in County, ID] was reported early the next spring [1863], August 1881, and 30 year old Emily Towell wrote that and serious prospecting continued there in 1864. they had reached the Payette River (Emmett campsite). Nothing of great interest turned up then, except for On August 6, she wrote, “We remained in camp while SNOW ON GOODALE’S CUTOFF/OREGON TRAIL DOWN TO THE PAYETTE VALLEY, THE HALF-MILE NARROW RIDGE some men went to search for Crane Creek Valley. This _____________________________________________________________ was about thirty miles [north] from the Payette valley.” PASSING OF BURT SILCOCK, JAN. 4 On the 7 th the men returned and had not found the route by Bill Wilson 9 January, 2008 through Crane Creek. On the 8 th they crossed the river It is with sadness that we note the death of Burton W. and she inscribed that “An old man accompanied us as Silcock, who passed away at home on January 4, 2008, our guide to the Crane Creek Valley.” at age 85. An Idaho native, Burt spent 33 years work- ing for the BLM, and was appointed National Director On August 9, Emily affirmed, however, that they had in 1971, the only BLM career employee to serve as a made little progress, probably about 8-9 miles. That national director . Retiring in 1977 to Meridian, ID, put them in the valley where the Van Dussen Ranch Burt continued as a BLM volunteer. Wally Meyer re- now stands. Though Bissel Creek flows there it must ports that Burt, Larry Jones, and Wally placed the first have had little water flow by that August. She wrote Carsonite marker near Teapot Dome in the mid- that “There wasn’t sufficient water for irrigation 1980s .Burt was an OCTA and I-OCTA member up therefore, we could not stay here.” In two more days ************ Silcock Family Photo they had reached Dixie Creek, SE of Cambridge, ID. An indication was printed in the last issue of Trail Dust that on our December 7, 2007, tour members had met Jim Little, part owner of the Van Dussen Ranch. Within days permission had been given by Mr. Little to mark the trail across the old ranch. That was a good invitation that called up an anxiousness in this old rut- nut Editor, but the good weather that had been experienced in the 7 th was fast changing. December then offered mostly cold, rain, snow, wind and mud. January 7 offered the worst snow storm to date for a 40 mile drive to Emmett on other historic trail related business. This was for a hearing with Gem County concerning the preservation of the 1870s Johnson Creek stage road to Marsh P.O. and the Marsh-Ireton Ranch. Van Dussen Ranch, at a higher, more snowy elevation than Emmett, was not reached that day! We now have an offer from new OCTA members at Emmett, Dick and Amy Linville, to help on that project when we finally get a good day for marking those BURT SILCOCK-HE WAS 1993 WAGON T RAIN MASTER swales.

Load more